Video: Foreign Investment and Indonesia's 'Big Messy Democracy'

April 23rd, 2014 by Dan Washburn

Dane Chamorro, managing director for Control Risks' Southeast Asia practice, recently visited Asia Society Studios in New York to discuss the upcoming presidential election in Indonesia and its potential effect on foreign investment in the world's third-largest democracy. You can watch highlights from the interview in the video embedded above.

Chamorro said some unexpected results in Indonesia's recent parliamentary elections have the country's various parties in a state of "coalition building" leading up to the July 9 vote for president.

"Whatever happens, you're going to have a coalition government, probably with four to five parties in the ruling coalition," Chamorro said. "Which means it is messy."

For investors, Chamorro said "resource-intensive sectors" such as plantations, minerals, and real estate, will likely remain the most testing. "Those sectors provide a more challenging environment for foreign investors because they are highly politicized and typically dominated by local business groups," he said.

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